Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains straddle the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, encompassing 814 square miles, is America’s most visited national park. A blue mist seems to always hover around the peaks and valleys. To the Cherokees the mountains were shaconage, (shah-con-ah-jey) or "place of the blue smoke".

Within the park is Cades Cove where in the late 1700’s the Cherokee settlement Tsiya’hi (Otter Place) existed. The Tsiya’hi leader was know as Chief Kade. Cherokee claims to the Smoky Mountains ended with the Treaty of Calhoun in 1819 and white settlers soon arrived. By 1850, the settlers population grew to 671 and by late 1890’s had phone service.

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Frontiersmen knew how to harness water, one of the few sources of power available to them. Water power was used to power water wheels, which in turn powered the grist mill.
The mill was able to produce greater amounts of cornmeal than the inefficient small tub mills at home. In addition to that, the water driven mill could grind wheat into flour, a welcome addition. Now biscuits and bread were also available.
The form of payment was not always in hard coin, but some form of barter such as part of the resulting flour or meal.

Settlers used tub mills to grind corn at home, but tub mills were only capable of processing a bushel of corn each day. Harnessing water power, some enterprising residents of Cades Cove built water driven mills to grind grain in large amounts and receive payment for their efforts.
However, payments was not always hard coin money. The miller might be paid a portion of the flour, meal or some other form of barter for the service provided.

The watermill is the earliest example of a machine using the forces of nature rather than human or animal muscle to power it. Depending on what source is referenced, the actual invention of the watermill seems to be as early as the 1st century BC or the 3rd century BC.
The two main components of a watermill are the waterwheel and the toothed gearing. During the 19th century, the technology was improved with the addition of multiple drive shafts, which allowed different gear ratios for multiple functions. One mill could produce different products.

The church organized in 1820 and met in a log building until 1902 when J. D. McCampbell built a proper church building in 115 days for $115. McCampbell then became the congregation’s preacher for many years.
The two front door design was common in the 1800’s. The two doors allowed men to enter one door and sit on one side and women and children on to do the same on the other side. However, it is reported the Cades Cove Methodist congregation was less formal and sat where they pleased.

Large barns were common in Cades Cove because of the considerable number of livestock.
Having originated centuries ago in Europe, Cantilever constructed barns, a system of counterweighted overhanging beams, was common in east Tennessee and western North Carolina.
The loft could hold many tons of hay and fodder. The large overhang, without posts to get in the way of traffic, sheltered both animals and farm equipment.

Natural springs occur throughout the Smoky Mountains where the water table is close to the surface. The multitude of cool natural springs is the result of significant annual precipitation averaging fifty (50) inches at lower elevations and up to eighty-three (83) inches at the highest elevation. As warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean cools when it rises over the mountains, it loses its ability to retain moisture. As a result, the higher elevations receive the largest amount of precipitation.

In Cades Cove, The Feezell family were prominent supporters of the Methodist Church. William A. “Billie” Feezell deeded land to the church in 1874 which provided a site for the cemetery. The Cades Cove Methodist cemetery has at least one hundred graves and is the second oldest cemetery in Cades Cove.
During the early nineteenth century, the Methodist Episcopal church had significant gain in membership in the United States. By 1820, the church was the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
The swift growth of Methodism was largely due to the theology it preached—individual responsibility and the equality of all men in the sight of God.

William "Fighting Billy" Tipton, a veteran of the American Revolution came to Cades Cove in 1821, buying up large tracts of land that he then sold to his sons and relatives and the settlement began to boom. The average size of farms was between 150 and 300 acres.
In 1833, the post office was established with a weekly mail route to the cove coming in 1839. Phone service came in the 1890’s, when Dan Lawson and several neighbors built a phone line all the way to Maryville. By the 1850’s, various roads connected Cades Cove with Tuckaleechee and Montvale Springs, some of which are still maintained as seasonal passes or hiking trails.

Transportation before the automobile was horse drawn, thus every community needed a blacksmith. Horse hoofs grow like human fingernails and need the same kind of trimming. To reset or replace a horseshoe, the blacksmith pulled the shoe off and trimmed the hoof with a metal file. The shoe was reset or a new one made that was then nailed into the horse's hoof.
Besides shoeing horses, the blacksmith fashioned all sorts of metal products needed for daily life: plows, nails, adzes, axes, chains, hinges, bolts, hammers, hoes, bits, hooks, broadaxes, kitchen knives and drawknives.

In Cades Cove, The Feezell family were prominent supporters of the Methodist Church. William A. “Billie” Feezell deeded land to the church in 1874 which provided a site for the cemetery. The Cades Cove Methodist cemetery has at least one hundred graves and is the second oldest cemetery in Cades Cove.

The highest mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the highest in Tennessee, is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet.
Thomas Lanier Clingman, explorer, politician, and Civl War general, measured the mountains in the mid 1800's with three scientists. They used barometers, crude by today's standard, to measure atmospheric pressure at the mountains' summit. Comparing the pressure reading from the summit with readings taken at the same time at low elevations, they were able to use complicated mathematical formulas to calculate a mountain's elevation.

Colonel Hamp Tipton, a veteran of the revolutionary war, built this two story house shortly after the Civil War. The homestead grew to include a smokehouse, woodshed, corn crib, backsmith shop, barn, and an apiary (a place for bee hives).

Around the time William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, the Cherokee Indians arrived in the Smoky Mountains. The Cherokee are believed to be a breakaway group of New England's Iroquois.
By the time European explorers came to the New World, seven clans of over 25,000 Cherokee ruled over what is now parts of eight states. The Cherokee name for the Smoky Mountains is shaconage, (shah-con-ah-jey) or "place of the blue smoke".

Mountain Industry—Cades Cove, Smoky Mountains

Settlers used tub mills to grind corn at home, but tub mills were only capable of processing a bushel of corn each day. Harnessing water power, some enterprising residents of Cades Cove built water driven mills to grind grain in large amounts and receive payment for their efforts.

However, payments was not always hard coin money. The miller might be paid a portion of the flour, meal or some other form of barter for the service provided.